He regarded her suspiciously, but with lunch being laid in front of him, he couldn’t easily excuse himself to go with her.
As soon as she was out of sight, she bypassed the gym and slipped up the steps. At the top, she ran into a uniformed crew member. She smiled, one more guest exploring the ship. “I can’t believe you get to work here. Everything is so beautiful.”
“Yes, madam.”
“Is there really a nightclub on the ship? That’s so amazing. I’d love to see it.”
“On the third deck. I’ll show you the elevator.”
“Oh, no. I can find it myself. I want to see the salon first. Who knows if I’ll get a chance to visit a ship like this again?”
“As you wish.” He gestured toward the stern.
In the main salon, another crew member was vacuuming the largest Persian rug Piper had ever seen, spoiling any chance Piper had to sneak up the main staircase to the prince’s private quarters on the top deck. The man turned off the vacuum and nodded politely. Piper babbled about how fantastic the ship was, speculated on how much it must have cost, and finally moved toward the elevator. There was no button for the top deck, so she hit the one for the third.
It opened onto a triangular room with a small dance floor, a disco ball, and ocean views. A door on one side of the bar took her into a longer corridor, where she discovered a service door that connected the decks for the crew.
As her foot hit the first tread, she heard someone enter the stairwell below. She rushed to the top, moving as soundlessly as she could, and slipped out into a mercifully empty service corridor for the fourth deck.
A door at the end opened into a small kitchen. She passed through it into a dining room and through that into a room dominated by a giant television screen. Behind her, she heard voices. She dashed through the closest door and found herself in the prince’s bedroom.
It was almost comically overdecorated, but the ceiling mirror above the bed curtailed any amusement. Behind her, the voices were coming closer, speaking a language she couldn’t understand. She dove for what she hoped was the closet.
It turned out to be little more than a shallow niche holding racks of shoes. She squeezed into the tiny space between the racks and the door. The darkness was thick and claustrophobic, smelling too strongly of musk, leather, and something overly sweet.
The voices were in the bedroom now. The edges of the shelves dug into her spine. If they opened the shoe closet door, they’d see her right away, and if that happened, she could very well end up dead in the ocean.
Coop would be beyond pissed.
Coop waved away the cigar Aamuzhir offered. Where the hell was Piper? Not in the gym, that was for damned sure. Her workouts mainly consisted of some halfhearted push-ups and a couple of laps around the block.
This trip had been a colossal waste of time. Aamuzhir had actually bragged to him about the good deal he’d made trading an insignificant servant girl for the championship ring. Whatever other sleazy things Aamuzhir had done, he wasn’t the one after Coop.
The prince pulled a cigar from the jeweled box on the table and pointed it directly at the three women by the pool, as if they were inanimate objects. “Feel free to enjoy yourself, my friend. They’re not as young as you might wish, but they’re very pliable.”
Coop had to steady himself. Those girls barely looked eighteen. But as satisfying as it would be to beat the crap out of this degenerate, he needed to wipe him from his life forever or Pipe would never get off his back about that ring. “Afraid my days of horn-doggin’ it are over,” he said. “I’m about to be a married man.”
“You Americans,” Aamuzhir said with lofty amusement. “So provincial.”
“You sound like my buddy Pete. Nothing could ever make that guy settle down. He doesn’t think anybody else should, either.”
“That’s not an option for most of us,” the prince said on a thin trail of cigar smoke.
Coop felt pity for Aamuzhir’s wives. “Yeah, Pete’s a real character. I guess you could technically say he’s a mercenary.”
“Mercenary?” That piqued the prince’s interest.
“He’s fought in Africa, the Middle East. Who knows where else? He has a real talent for explosives. The bigger the target, the better.” He leaned closer. “Do you know, he once blew a boat about this size straight out of the Gulf of Aden?” He forced a chuckle. “That’s the kind of guy who’s a good friend to have on your side. If anybody ever tried to screw me over, Pete would take care of them long before I could. Dude’s crazy, but you gotta love his loyalty.”
While Aamuzhir listened, Coop went on, extolling the nonexistent Pete’s destructive skills, right along with his personal loyalty. Aamuzhir wasn’t into subtlety, and Coop laid it on thick, wanting to make sure he’d recall this conversation if he figured out Coop had dumped a fake ring on him. When Coop felt he’d gone far enough, he pushed back his chair. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna make sure my fiancée didn’t get lost.”
The prince was not happy about losing Coop’s attention, but Coop had done his job and didn’t care. He nodded at the women who were watching him from their chaises just as Piper appeared. Her cheeks were flushed, and she was breathing faster than normal. He didn’t like it.
“There you are, sweetheart.” He pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to the launch owner. “I know you’re having a great time, but we need to be heading back soon.”
“Do we have to?” The way she turned it into a whine told him she was as ready as he to get off this ship of fools.
“We have a meeting with our wedding planner,” he said. “Remember?”
Other than a slight narrowing around her eyes, she didn’t flinch. “I was all for eloping to city hall,” she said. “You’re the one who has to have pink doves and flower girls.”
He couldn’t help but grin. He’d had enough contact with Aamuzhir to last him forever, and he dragged her to the pool, where he intended to keep them both until the launch arrived.
They couldn’t talk privately on the launch, but as soon as they reached the Setai, Pipe tried to make a getaway. “I need some exercise. I’m taking a beach walk. See you later.” She peeled off from him, her dress swishing around her thighs.
He had her arm before she could reach the sidewalk. “A walk sounds good. I’ll come with you.”
“No need,” she said brightly. “Why don’t you call some of your friends?”
“Why don’t I not?”
“Fine. I didn’t feel like walking anyway.”
“Good. Because you’re not going anywhere.” He led her into the hotel, but on his way to the elevator bank, he changed direction. Once he got her near that bed, she’d make him forget they needed to talk, so instead, he steered her to a seating niche.
The Setai’s Asian-inspired courtyard was an oasis of luxurious, lemongrass-scented calm with low couches that seemed to float on the shallow water of the central serenity pool. Except for the manicured palms and the single orange centered on each side table, the space was a composition of every shade of gray, from charcoal to pearl. The only sounds came from the distant murmur of voices and the calming trickle of running water, but not even the peace of their surroundings could convince Piper this would go well.
Coop folded himself next to her on the couch. “Considering how useless this trip was, I don’t see what you’re trying to avoid, so spit it out. What don’t you want to tell me?”
“Not entirely useless,” she replied carefully. “We’ve eliminated one more suspect. Since the prince is still showing off your ring, he has no motive to attack you.”
“Yet you disappeared.”
“I wanted to look around.”
“Look around where?”
She’d done what she thought she had to, but he wouldn’t see it that way, and she was having misgivings. “Aamuzhir’s bedroom. It gave me the creeps.”